|
Brad,
Generally, most rock in the wild is not covered with that much coralline. However, I've noticed that the Fiji shaped with all the little round nodules tends to be almost 100% covered with coralline (straight from the reef). It's really hard to find pieces like that in the store, though.
Reasoning: Compared to the world's reefs, our tanks (such as the ones seen above)have a much higher ratio of corallines spores to water volume. Our tanks also have much less waste and nutrients in the water (for us to be successful, our water must be reasonably "clean"). In addition, reefs in the wild have more grazers, more variation is lighting due to depth differences, MUCH higher nutrient levels in the water, and more competitors of reef building elements, such as corals, algaes, etc. There's a whole bunch more factors I probably didn't mention.
Nice coralline growth, everyone. I will never achieve that level, because I definitely overfeed my tank (I have nice corals, though) and have excess PO4 in the water. Take it easy,
Ben
[Edited by bigben on 03-24-2001 at 10:31 PM]
|